The present invention relates to visualizing the impact of electrical pacing on cardiac function of a patient, and more particularly to automatically calculating heart parameters for various pacing locations and protocols and visualizing the cardiac changes resulting from the various pacing locations and protocols to guide lead placement for interventional therapies.
Heart failure is a major cause of death in the western world. Due to insufficient heart function, heart failure causes dyspnea and fatigue, and can also lead to cardiac arrest. For patients with a prolonged QRS-complex (e.g., QRS≧120 ms) and low left-ventricular ejection fraction, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a well-established treatment. CRT consists of implanting electrodes in the heart to pace the muscle artificially and “resynchronize” cardiac contraction. The idea is to pace the myocardium at the right ventricle (RV) endocardium and the left ventricle (LV) epicardium, with given pacing intervals, to resynchronize the cardiac motion and hence re-establish the pumping efficiency of the heart. However, despite strict guidelines, 30% of patients do not respond to CRT. Hence, better patient selection for CRT and improved guidance towards the optimal location of the pacing leads are desirable.